The Tenth Life

Carol King Butler was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and now lives in her childhood playground; Lake Wylie, SC. Carol has a BA in Theatre, is an author, playwright, online school owner/course creator, audio/video brander and digital photo artist. The Tenth Life was written as a resource to help others cope with the loss of an animal family member. Carol and friends moved to Lake Wylie, SC and discovered over 65 starving feral cats within two weeks of living there. There have been a total of 125 rescues since 2000. Because they were feral animals (not tamed/socialized to people) they could not be adopted (although Carol tamed 20 kittens and found homes for them) so the Humane Societies couldn’t help. They numbered too many for Animal Control to trap (which would have meant death anyway by them) and South Carolina would not allow Carol to open a nonprofit because personally she could not take in more. It made her only choice to be THE individual rescuer, spayer and neuter person, medical caretaker, food and shelter provider through her own resources. It is an understatement to talk about what the last 20+ years have been like as one-by-one her four-legged friends began to get age related problems which ultimately resulted in going to their tenth lives. Each was loved individually for who she or he was and each loss was a heart tear. The Tenth Life continues to give comfort to Carol and many others because of what the cat shares with her owner. Cat wisdom can be profound. Carol’s other books include the nonfiction, Living Inside-Out: Be Who You Imagine You Can and her other work of fiction, The Trinibeings’ Daughters.